In other words, during your working career(s), did you ever go to the doctor and get signed off work?  Were you actually sick?

 

In my 39 years of various jobs in the UK, EU and Asia, I cannot think of any occasion when I have got a sick note.  Yes, I have taken a single day off here and there for flu etc, but never any length of time that would need a sick note.

 

My question comes after reading of the startling stats from the UK about millions of Brits - young and old - who have diagnosed themselves as in poor mental health (using my good friend Dr Google), and have gone on to get signed off work and onto long-term sick pay.

 

Are they 'swinging the lead'?.  Are they really in such poor mental health that they are unable to work? Are they just experiencing the normal ups and downs of mental stress, depression etc? Perhaps they are just lazy ****s!

 

What's your opinion?  And are you/have you been in the same boat?

congratulations if you've been able to slave away in the machine with nary a doctor's note.

fact is we're working way too much.

vacations are too short.

and workweeks should probably be cut down to 4 days. some companies gave friday afternoons off. 

Never done it myself, but I can understand why some people want to cheat the system and fake illness.

 

I go to the docs once a month, she insists on giving a doc note for the day off but its not needed as I take the day off as business leave.

 

The Thai staff that like to use up their 30days annual sick leave, they all must bring a doctors note... I suspect these are fake though.

I got a nice certificate from my company congratulating me for working 10 years without a sick day. As they did not sweeten the pot at all, from then on I had a couple of sickies a year.

A doctor's note was only necessary after two days off work in Australia. The bludgers only took one day off at a time.

I inherited a guy who took Fridays and Mondays off for 50 weeks in succession. I said you are extracting the urine, it stops now. He transferred out of my section two weeks later.

Only 3 days off with proper Flu when i was a consultant so was proper ill as had no sick pay. As a manager, lightweights phoning in sick was annoying

In my opinion you should ask what has happened in the last two years and more with Covid, which is a bacteriological warfare weapon released by a Chinese worker by mistake, which has infected the entire world population, many have died and the survivors are been infected to varying degrees and it is clear that not only in the UK are there many sick people as a result of this disaster in all countries.

 

So nothing surprising if you look at these statistics about this largest bacteriological accident in human history.

I had a couple of sick days off. And I was actually sick.

I never called in sick because I wanted a day off.

When I visited doctors in Thai hospitals they normally ask if I need a sick leave notice.

 

It seems that attitude depends a lot on the employer and what is usual in those companies.

I remember I read a study that lots of people in the German post offices report sick all the time, mostly on Fridays and Mondays.

 

I think if people are not well, for whatever reason, then they should rest and get better.

If someone if sick in the office or at a construction site, is that helpful? Or would it be better that they get fit first before they work again?

You can get sick/medical certificate online nowadays,no need to see a doctor office,in Australia anyway 

Actually here in Thailand they are called Medical Certificate and I obtain on every doctor visit for insurance coverage (as bills do not indicate reason for visit but these do).  Nothing to do with avoiding work (but they do have place for doctor to indicate such).

 

But OP is about the changing world - and indeed sick days/entitlement seems to be one of many factors that may come back to bite sooner than we think.  But then again we could believe the world is sick so all these sick days are valid for everyone.  Respect seems to have lost the self for all too many of us.

Plenty of days off while working for British Airways but no doctors note. Only single day so note not needed.

 

My Pinay nurse girlfriend had a dingy attic room in Maida Vale and to make a 6.30 am early shift I had to leave her warm bed at 5.15 am . On a winters day what would you do ? Go to work or have a shag and go back to sleep.

 

I eventually got dragged over the coles for this. I learnt my lesson. No more single days off. Took a week off instead and got a doctor's note.

Have you ever "gotten"

 

 

11 hours ago, Celsius said:

Have you ever "gotten"

 

 

If that is a 'dig' at my grammar, please be reminded that 'got' in this usage is 100% correct 'real English', and 'gotten' is some form of bastardised English from across the pond 🙂

5 minutes ago, simon43 said:

If that is a 'dig' at my grammar, please be reminded that 'got' in this usage is 100% correct 'real English', and 'gotten' is some form of bastardised English from across the pond 🙂

Correct, just some Canuck thinking they invented the language .

 

I had a heart attack last August.  I had a balloon angioplasty and a stent inserted and then spend 4 or 5 days in the ICU and then another 2 or 3 in a regular hospital room.  After a week in the hospital and a week at home, my school wanted me to come back to work.  I got a note from my doctor saying I couldn't and so I was able to teach online for the next week.  3 weeks after my heart attack I was back at school, walking slowly up to the 4th floor office!

A few times, for malaria and amoebic dysentery in Ghana, and typhoid fever in Malaysia. I've never been one to swing the lead.

 

.

Last time I recall. When I had the Covid virus My company would pay unless I had a Dr. note, telemedicine was OK and a lab report. No report it would have come out MY sick bank so I had to traipse around to a clinic maybe possibly infecting others.  Visiting a clinic is probably where I got it 😂 actually turned into a cluster where I had to rent a car and go to a drive thru test as there was no other way to get tested where I stay in USA 

 

I had a lengthy period off work once with a doctor's certificate. Also, I occasionally took single days off when ill. Part of the working conditions allowed for a small number of paid sick days per year. Five or six, I think. It was acknowledged by management that it was more efficient for sick people to avoid spreading viruses into the work environment. I don't consider heroes are made by soldiering on for The Man when you are genuinely ill.

 

I worked with one guy who didn't take a day off in about 5 years, and wanted me, as a union delegate, to bring up an agenda item at national conference to reward people like him with cash bonuses or remove the allowance altogether because he considered those using it to be lazy or cheating. While admitting there were some who used up the allowance each year whether ill or not, I had great difficulty explaining to him I wasn't about to argue against a hard-won working condition gained by the union in the first place.

 

 

 

... sure, 3 weeks off work for massive conjunctivitis, all paperwork you could imagine, highly transmissible at times as well.

That was after 5 weeks absence already due to scheduled holidaying in TH - caught it from one of the b(ea)ches obviously ...

 

Now ask me if the company was overly happy about it, 555 ...

 

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Correct, just some Canuck thinking they invented the language .

 

 

I have gotten a lecture 

15 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

You can get sick/medical certificate online nowadays,no need to see a doctor office,in Australia anyway 

When I worked in OZ you were entitled to about 10-12 days a year 'sickies'  even if you were not sick. 

My opinion theyre  lazy winkers, keep  busy you wont have time for mental health, christ if a war came theyd  all report  sick no doubt................ I digress I was once for 6  weeks in 1990 July 27th 10am Birmingham, remember it  well............ doctor said we  dont see you often (Ever), Elbow very tender Olecronon Bursitis  something or  other, was  self  employed so for the first month i think u get nowt then I got 4  weeks  sick pay.

Also once forced onto the dole as 1983 to start your  own business and get a govt grant you had to be unemployed for a year first, they abandoned that 2  years  later  and you didnt have to be unemployed to get it.

I never  had a baby either so saved the NHS  that............waddya mean men cant  have babies!!!

Got  run over by a  car at 10 years  old which cut  my ear off 10 days in hospital , and 3 months in hospital as a 3  year old when a brand  new car my Dad bought ( good ole BMC)  had the suspension brake and went out of control into a  tree, we  all went  flying 1960's.....these  days would have gotten millions in compensation , all we got was  another new  car.

Im the blonde haired lil sheite with the camera and that was the replacement car, the old mangled one even made the newspapers along the lines of  family almost wiped out etc, was a big deal back in Victorian times..........

2 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

When I worked in OZ you were entitled to about 10-12 days a year 'sickies'  even if you were not sick. 

Thats pathetic  aint it.

Just now, Rampant Rabbit said:

Thats pathetic  aint it.

Is it. 

14 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Actually here in Thailand they are called Medical Certificate and I obtain on every doctor visit for insurance coverage (as bills do not indicate reason for visit but these do).  Nothing to do with avoiding work (but they do have place for doctor to indicate such).

 

But OP is about the changing world - and indeed sick days/entitlement seems to be one of many factors that may come back to bite sooner than we think.  But then again we could believe the world is sick so all these sick days are valid for everyone.  Respect seems to have lost the self for all too many of us.

Yeah .................I broke  my finger nail so had to get it fixed at the salon type crap!

2 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

Is it. 

Yes , trust me on that............ if you have to, perhaps maybe, ok a definite  maybe then

1 minute ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

Yes , trust me on that............ if you have to, perhaps maybe, ok a definite  maybe then

Why? 

10 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

Why? 

Because......

13 minutes ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

Because......

What... where why when 

15 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

You can get sick/medical certificate online nowadays,no need to see a doctor office,in Australia anyway 

What happened to the good old "sickies"? 5 days a year, considered as extra annual leave, by many.

2 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

2 hours ago, brianthainess said:

When I worked in OZ you were entitled to about 10-12 days a year 'sickies'  even if you were not sick. 

Thats pathetic  aint it.

So, an allowance in case you needed it for sickness. Not an extra 2-week holiday?